Grapes to Gold and Back Again… [Advance]

Here’s a two-part story I did for Roadrunner Travel magazine highlighting the backroads and byways of Northern California. They are as yet unpublished, but Part 1 should be hitting the shelves in the next few weeks.

Here’s an except from Part 1:

Once a year, freedom rings louder than normal and people are free to blow stuff up, party all night, and praise Old Glory with all their might—often all at the same time – to celebate the anniversary of the birth of our nation, July4th. This year, I praised our nation in my own way, with a tour through a few of Northern California’s counties, each with their own ideas of independence. From gold miners to Native Americans, rural to urban, fact to fiction, the Golden State is the living definition of freedom.